Imagine that you’re a pastor in a church when you hear the terrible news that a young mother from your congregation drowned her newborn while suffering a psychotic episode brought on by intense postpartum depression. All agree that the child’s death is a tragedy and, given the circumstances, the mother is not criminally responsible for […]
divorce
The “Nashville Statement”: Three Problems with the Preamble
Yesterday the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood issued “The Nashville Statement“. I’m sympathetic with many concerns of The Nashville Statement and I believe many of the statements in the document are well-crafted and fundamentally correct. Unfortunately, I also have significant concerns with the document and they start at the beginning. In this article I’m going […]
Would you advise an abused wife to divorce her husband?
Today conservative Christian radio host and author Michael Brown posted the following tweet: If, as a married couple in the Lord, you have the attitude that divorce is not an option, with God's help, you can work through anything. — Dr. Michael L. Brown (@DrMichaelLBrown) March 1, 2017 That’s fine advice for most couples. Our […]
Are Christians being hypocrites about marriage?
In “Christians standing against gay marriage need to be consistent on divorce” I pointed out the tension with Christians impugning gay marriage as unbiblical whilst ignoring Jesus’ teaching on divorce and remarriage. To put this problem in perspective, I want to start by saying something further about the problem of divorce. In his book The Scandal […]
Till death do we part? Ethical reflection on marital vows
In my previous post I found myself in the surprising situation of defending Pat Robertson’s widely panned commentary on the morality of divorce in the case of advanced Alzheimer’s. I was not necessarily agreeing with Pat’s view, but I was certainly sympathetic to it. Not everyone was in agreement. A couple people offered reasonable […]
Is it moral to divorce a spouse with Alzheimer’s Disease?
If you would have told me yesterday that I would find myself in sympathy with a controversial ethical position taken by Pat Robertson I wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are. Christian Post blogger Olabode Ososami’s article “Divorce and Pat Robertson’s Alzheimer’s Gaffe” has changed all that. In an interesting article Ososami points out that […]
